Tonight 31-year-old Police Constable Crispin Jeffries Jr. is a convicted rapist facing a life sentence. This afternoon in the Supreme Court as the jury foreman read the guilty verdict, the former deejay was emotional, openly weeping and then defiantly storming out of the courtroom as he was taken into police custody. Crispin Jr. was charged for the March 13th 2004 rape of a 20-year-old woman at the Diamond Motel on the Northern Highway. The trial which lasted for three weeks was ripe with intrigue as bloodied underwear, torn tights, and even a tampon were introduced into evidence.
But after 18 witnesses, it came down to the word of the alleged victim against that of Crispin Jr. who took the stand in his own defense. On the stand Jeffries claimed he never even had sex with his accuser and they only wrestled on the bed. The girl claimed she ended up in a motel room with Jeffries after a night of partying with two other couples in Hattieville and he raped her. Well after about three hours of deliberations, the jury of 7 men and only 2 women returned the guilty verdict. For Matthias Mariano who is a close relative of the victim, justice was served.
Mathias Mariano, Relative of Rape Victim
"We are quite satisfied because we have received justice. It has been a hard thing for the family because if you can recall just in the year 2003 my son was killed and six months thereafter we encountered another issue, with another policeman, which was six months and a day, to verify. So we see that justice has been served and the family is quite satisfied that the verdict came out as a guilty verdict."
Keith Swift,
He can get a maximum of life in prison, what does the family think Mr. Jeffries deserves?
Mathias Mariano,
"Well that depends on the judge, I want to leave that. I don't want to judge or anything like that but that will all depend on the judge. The fact remains that we have received justice."
We note that life in prison is the maximum sentence for rape and the minimum is 8 years. Legal observers say Jeffries will more than likely get between 8 and 15 years. Sentencing is set for October 14th.
Crispin Jeffries Jr. was defended by Attorney B.Q. Pitts who today told us he will study the verdict. He says no decision has been made yet on an appeal but we note that any appeal won't be heard until next year at the Court of Appeals' next session. Jeffries was prosecuted by Crown Counsel Cheryl Lynn Branker-Taitt and the presiding judge was Adolph Lucas.
At the time of the accusation, he was an officer on active duty with the Crimes Intelligence Unit. Since then, he has been on interdiction.
